Grass Grub Pest

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 37, 7 November 1933, Page 11

Grass Grub Pest

Sir, —In “The Dominion” of October 26' Mr. Gregor McGregor, of Waverley, asks if anything is being done to check the grass grub, and says that many farmers think the magpies are chasing the starlings away, which are said to be a good remedy for the grubs. The inagj pies will not cheek the grub. About 10. months ago 1 had a letter in "The Dominion” praising the magpie as a help to’ check the grub. I still stick to my opinion. After a very heavy rain they must do a lot of good, when the grubs are forced out of the ground by water, and in November or December when the grubs come out at dusk they must do a lot of good, too, whereas starlings are awav before dark. Not that I believe that the grubs lay all their eggs after they come out of the ground ; they must lay some before they come out, as I noticed them one season in a patch about two yards across and next year there was another strip of about two yards wide outside the last year’s patch, and the next year there was a patch about three feet wide. The first and second years’ patches were very bare of grass. The last year’s patch was very brown and the stock pulled it up easily. I remember the next autumn there was a very warm rain, and round the outside ring there was a grand lot of mushrooms. I suppose almost everyone has seen round rings of mushrooms, and I know for certain tlie grubs were the cause of the ring mentioned above. They must lay some eggs before they come out. There is another point, that is puzzling me. In the autumn after a good rain the starlings have all the sheep and cattle manure well worked up. \Vhat do they get? The stock must take something into their stomachs and discharge it in the autumn. It may be grass grubs taken in with grass and hutched either before they leave the animal or by the rain. In my letter last year I suggested Nauru phosphates. I grassed a paddock last autumn, and about June or July I noticed some bare patches. I could see them 30 chains off from hill. I got my man to take two bags of Nauru and half a bag of sulphate of potash down. He put about two cwt. of mixed manure to the acre on the bare patches. He was down the other day, and he says all the bare patches that he showed are covered with rye grass and clover. When

he came back from sowing the manure, he should have had another bag of manure to finish the worst places. The other day he had a look at the patches he did not do. and he says they are looking very bad still. I have not tried salt, but I will try it. •My firm opinion is that the.stoat, which can climb trees like a cat, is the cause of starlings getting reduced in numbers. Three years ago we had one about the sheds, and we know two or three lots of starlings disappeared after being hatched. This year there were three nests of voting birds in one shed. One has gone, so I suppose the others will go too.— l am, < ‘ tC ” W. RAYNER. Master-ton, November 5.